Crab Nebula (Messier 1): Facts, Pulsar, Supernova, Location, Images | Constellation Guide Constellation Guide Constellations: A Guide to the Night Sky Crab Nebula – Messier 1 by admin The Crab Nebula, also known as Messier 1 and Taurus A, is a supernova remnant located in the direction of Taurus constellation . The nebula lies at an approximate distance of 6,500 light years from Earth. It is an expanding remnant of a star that exploded in a supernova event which was observed by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054 AD. The nebula’s designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 1952. The Crab Nebula was created as a result of an extremely bright supernova explosion, one that was visible to the naked eye for almost two years. The supernova remnant was later observed by the English astronomer John Bevis, who discovered it in 1731. Charles Messier discovered the object independently in 1758 while looking for a comet that Edmond Halley said would return that year.

Messier 1 is also classified as a pulsar wind nebula, which means that the nebula is made of the material ejected by a pulsating neutron star interacting with interstellar gas and the magnetic field of the pulsar itself. The Crab Nebula expands at a rate of 1,500 kilometres per second. It contains two dim stars at its centre, one of which is the neutron star. This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star’s supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans. The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The rapidly spinning neutron star embedded in the center of the nebula is the dynamo powering the nebula’s eerie interior bluish glow. The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star.

The neutron star, like a lighthouse, ejects twin beams of radiation that appear to pulse 30 times a second due to the neutron star’s rotation. A neutron star is the crushed ultra-dense core of the exploded star. The Crab Nebula derived its name from its appearance in a drawing made by Irish astronomer Lord Rosse in 1844, using a 36-inch telescope. When viewed by Hubble, as well as by large ground-based telescopes such as the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the Crab Nebula takes on a more detailed appearance that yields clues into the spectacular demise of a star, 6,500 light-years away. The newly composed image was assembled from 24 individual Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000. The colors in the image indicate the different elements that were expelled during the explosion. Blue in the filaments in the outer part of the nebula represents neutral oxygen, green is singly-ionized sulfur, and red indicates doubly-ionized oxygen. Image: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A.

Loll (Arizona State University) The nebula is notable for its intricate structure, with filaments of dust that can be seen in visible wavelengths. Its contains enough dust, made of carbon and silicate materials, to make 30,000-40,000 Earths. Study of the nebula provided definitive proof that supernova events created the raw materials for the first solid particles. Messier 1 is the strongest known persistent source of X-ray and gamma-ray radiation in the sky. It contains the Crab Pulsar at its centre, a neutron star about 28-30 kilometres across. The dead star’s core emits pulses of radiation from gamma rays to radio waves as it spins at a rate of 30.2 per second. This is useful for studying the objects that pass in front of the nebula, blocking its radiation, like the Sun or the moons orbiting the planets in the solar system. In 2003, scientists used it to measure the thickness of Titan’s (Saturn’s moon) atmosphere and in the mid-20th century, they used it to map the Sun’s corona.

The Crab Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 8.4 and cannot be seen without binoculars or a telescope. Observing it with binoculars requires good viewing conditions, and it only appears as a faint patch of light in 7×50 and 10×50 binoculars. In 4-inch telescopes, one can see a hint of the nebula’s streak structure in the central region, and in most smaller telescopes the nebula looks similar to a comet without a tail. The filaments and details of the nebula’s structure are only visible in 16-inch or larger telescopes in good viewing conditions. The Crab Nebula occasionally flares up. The most recent flare was recorded in March 2013, when the nebula exhibited a spike in gamma-ray emission three times more intense than its usual output. In April 2011, a particularly bright outburst was recorded that made the nebula about 30 times brighter than it normally is. The flares are suspected to be the result of the pulsar’s wind. FACTS M1 is about 11 light years in diameter, which translates into 7 arc minutes of apparent diameter.

It is part of the Perseus Arm of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Crab Nebula was the first object to be entered in Messier’s catalogue and remains one of the most studied objects in the night sky. It helps that the view of the nebula is not obscured by dust and other interstellar material, which makes it easy to observe and study. The nebula was also the first object associated with a historical supernova event. The supernova remnant was discovered by John Bevis in 1731, who included it in his sky atlas, Uranographia Britannica. Charles Messier observed the object independently on August 28, 1758, and thought it was a comet. Once he had realized that the object did not have apparent proper motion, he entered it into his catalogue on September 12, 1758. Messier’s catalogue was created to list objects that sky watchers confused for comets, and the Crab Nebula was the first deep sky object on his list. The supernova explosion in 1054 was so bright that it was visible in the daytime sky for 23 days. The event was documented by astronomers and sky watchers throughout the Far East.

Drawing of the Crab Nebula. Originally published in Observations on Some of the Nebulae, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London vol. 134 (1844). Author: William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. British astronomer William Parsons, Lord Rosse, sketched the nebula around 1844 after observing it though a 36-inch telescope. The image of the object resembled a crab, which is how the nebula got its name. The name stuck even though Lord Rosse later said his sketch was not representative of the nebula’s appearance and structure after observing it through a 72-inch telescope in 1848. The nebula was first photographed n 1892 using a 20-inch telescope. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that scientists determined that the nebula was expanding and matched its origination date to the historical supernova explosion. In 1918, the American astronomer Heber D. Curtis classified the object as a planetary nebula. It was not until 1933 that this classification was disproved.

In 1921, the American astronomer Carl Otto Lampland used photographs of the nebula taken using a 42-inch reflector and discovered motions inside the nebula. He saw that individual components changed in brightness, especially those in the vicinity of the central pair of stars. 1921 was also the year the American astronomer John Charles Duncan discovered that the nebula was expanding at a rate of about 0.2” per year after comparing photographs taken 11.5 years apart. It was the Swedish astronomer Knut Lundmark who first noted the proximity of the Crab Nebula to the historical supernova of 1054, also in 1921. In 1928, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble suggested that the object be associated with the historical supernova. In 1942, the German astronomer Walter Baade used a 100-inch Hooker telescope to study the nebula and traced back its year of origin to 1180. Later calculations changed the estimated date to 1140. As the supernova occurred in 1054, the expansion rate of the nebula is believed to have accelerated.

The nebula was linked to the Supernova 1054 beyond reasonable doubt in 1942 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort. Crab Nebula – Messier 1 (NGC 1952, Sharpless 244) Coordinates: 05h34m31.94s (right ascension), +22°00’52.2” (declination) Visual magnitude: 8.4 Apparent dimensions: 420” x 290” Radius: 5.5 light years Constellation: Taurus PULSAR The pulsar inside the Crab Nebula is the rapidly spinning, relatively young neutron star that powers the nebula. A neutron star is created in the aftermath of a supernova. Stars explode when they run out of fuel to keep from collapsing into themselves; their outer layers are ejected into space in a supernova explosion, creating a nebula, while the inner core contracts to form a neutron star. A star’s spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of 1054 A.D.

Now, almost a thousand years later, a super dense object — called a neutron star — left behind by the explosion is seen spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula. X-ray data from Chandra provide significant clues to the workings of this mighty cosmic “generator,” which is producing energy at the rate of 100,000 suns. This composite image uses data from three of NASA’s Great Observatories. The Chandra X-ray image is shown in blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical image is in red and yellow, and the Spitzer Space Telescope’s infrared image is in purple. The X-ray image is smaller than the others because extremely energetic electrons emitting X-rays radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. Along with many other telescopes, Chandra has repeatedly observed the Crab Nebula over the course of the mission’s lifetime. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the sky, truly making it a cosmic icon.

Image – X-Ray: NASA/CXC/J.Hester (ASU); Optical: NASA/ESA/J.Hester & A.Loll (ASU); Infrared: NASA, JPL-Caltech, R.Gehrz (Univ. Minn.) The neutron star that remains is very small, normally just 10 to 15 miles across, but it is extremely dense. The star within the Crab Nebula rotates very rapidly, and completes about 30 revolutions each second. Rotating neutron stars like this one are called pulsars. The word is derived from the contraction of the term “pulsating star.” The Crab Pulsar is one of the most powerful pulsars known. It lights the nebula in every wavelength, from radio to gamma-rays. The optical pulsar has a diameter of about 20 kilometres. The X-rays emitted by the nebula were discovered in April 1963, and the source was subsequently named Taurus X-1. After further observation, scientists concluded that the X-rays come from an area which is at least 2 arcminutes in size, and that the nebula’s X-ray emission is roughly 100 times more intense that the energy emitted in visible light.

The nebula’s luminosity in visible light translates into an absolute magnitude of about -3.2, which makes the Crab Nebula more than 1,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Its luminosity across all spectral ranges is estimated to be 100,000 times that of the Sun. The Italian astrophysicist Franco Pacini predicted the existence of a neutron star in the 1960s to account for the nebula’s brightness. The Crab Pulsar (PSR B0531+21) was discovered in Messier 1 on November 9, 1968. The pulsating radio source was detected at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico by astronomers using a 300-meter radio telescope. On January 15, 1969, astronomers at the Steward Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, observed the nebula using a 36-inch telescope and discovered that the Crab Pulsar was flashing with a period of 33.085 miliseconds. The knowledge of the pulsar’s exact age helped astronomers in the study of these objects and their physical properties.

The only other pulsar connected to a known supernova is located in 3C58 in Cassiopeia constellation , the remnant of the supernova SN 1181, but the connection between the two has been contested. The discovery of the pulsar within the Crab Nebula confirmed the theory that neutron stars were formed in certain types of supernova events. The pulsar was really first detected in the summer of 1967 by Charles Schisler, a U.S. Air Force officer, who detected a radio source and determined its position, which corresponded to that of the Crab Nebula. Schisler later discovered a number of other pulsars, but the Air Force never published his discoveries because they did not think they were of any concern to them. The Crab Pulsar emits pulses in every part of the electromagnetic spectrum and powers the nebula. Its spin rate, 30 times per second, is slowly decelerating, by 38 nanoseconds per day, because the pulsar wind carries away a lot of its energy. The spinning neutron star has a visual magnitude of 16 in visible light and an absolute magnitude of 4.5, roughly the same as the Sun in visible light.

SUPERNOVA SN 1054, the supernova that created the Crab Nebula was originally seen by Chinese astronomers on July 4, 1054 AD. They documented it as a “guest star,” a new star in the sky that appeared four times brighter than the planet Venus. At its peak, the supernova had a visual magnitude of about -6, and could be seen during the day for 23 days. The event was visible to the naked eye for 653 days at night. It was the brightest object in the sky next to the Moon for a few months, and is the best known supernova in the history of astronomy. Supernova 1054 was given the variable star designation CM Tauri. The star that exploded was 12 to 15 times more massive than the Sun, turned by the supernova event into a small neutron star that spins rapidly, ejecting stellar material. LOCATION The Crab Nebula is located near the southern horn of the celestial bull, represented by Taurus constellation . The southern horn is marked by the 3rd magnitude star Zeta Tauri, located to the east-northeast of the bright Aldebaran, Alpha Tauri .

The nebula can be found approximately 1 degree to the north and 1 degree to the west of Zeta Tauri. It is best seen in the evenings in January. Messier 1 lies only a degree and a half from the ecliptic and is frequently eclipsed by planets and the Moon. IMAGES Messier 1 (Crab Nebula) photographed by High Energy Focusing Telescope (HEFT), NASA’s Scientific Ballooning Program. Image: CM Hubert Chen, Fiona A. Harrison, Principal Investigator, Caltech Charles J. Hailey, Columbia Principal, Columbia, Finn E. Christensen, DSRI Principal, DSRI, William W. Craig, Optics Scientist, LLNL, Stephen M. Schindler, Project Manager, Caltech Composite: This photo shows a three colour composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as Messier 1), as observed with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode in the morning of November 10, 1999.

It is the remnant of a supernova explosion at a distance of about 6,000 light-years, observed almost 1,000 years ago, in the year 1054. It contains a neutron star near its center that spins 30 times per second around its axis (see below). In this picture, the green light is predominantly produced by hydrogen emission from material ejected by the star that exploded. The blue light is predominantly emitted by very high-energy (“relativistic”) electrons that spiral in a large-scale magnetic field (so-called syncrotron emission). It is believed that these electrons are continuously accelerated and ejected by the rapidly spinning neutron star at the centre of the nebula and which is the remnant core of the exploded star.

This pulsar has been identified with the lower/right of the two close stars near the geometric center of the nebula, immediately left of the small arc-like feature, best seen in ESO Press Photo eso9948 .Technical information : ESO Press Photo eso9948 is based on a composite of three images taken through three different optical filters: B (429 nm; FWHM 88 nm; 5 min; here rendered as blue), R (657 nm; FWHM 150 nm; 1 min; green) and S II (673 nm; FWHM 6 nm; 5 min; red) during periods of 0.65 arcsec (R, S II) and 0.80 (B) seeing, respectively. The field shown measures 6.8 x 6.8 arcmin and the images were recorded in frames of 2048 x 2048 pixels, each measuring 0.2 arcsec. North is up; East is left. Image: ESO This image of the Crab combines data from three of NASA’s Great Observatories.

X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been combined with optical images from Hubble (red and yellow) as well as infrared data from Spitzer (purple). Together, these three telescopes provide a striking view of this famous cosmic source. Image: Joseph DePasquale, Chandra X-Ray Observatory Visible light: Crab Nebula in visible light taken by the Hale Observatory optical telescope in 1959. Image: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA-MSFC) X-ray: In the Crab Nebula, a rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar (white dot near the center), powers the dramatic activity seen by Chandra. The inner X-ray ring is thought to be a shock wave that marks the boundary between the surrounding nebula and the flow of matter and antimatter particles from the pulsar. Energetic particles move outward to brighten the outer ring and produce an extended X-ray glow. The jets perpendicular to the ring are due to matter and antimatter particles spewing out from the poles of the pulsar. The fingers, loops and bays visible on the outer boundary of the nebula are likely caused by confinement of the high-energy particles by magnetic forces.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Medium: Chandra telescope X-ray Image: NASA, CXC, SAO, F.Seward et al. Infrared: The Crab Nebula is the shattered remnant of a massive star that ended its life in a massive supernova explosion. Nearly a thousand years old, the supernova was noted in the constellation of Taurus by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054 AD. This view of the supernova remnant obtained by the Spitzer Space Telescope shows the infrared view of this complex object.

The blue region traces the cloud of energetic electrons trapped within the star’s magnetic field, emitting so-called “synchrotron” radiation. The yellow-red features follow the well-known filamentary structures that permeate this nebula. Though they are known to contain hot gasses, their exact nature is still a mystery that astronomers are examining. The energetic cloud of electrons are driven by a rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, at its core. The nebula is about 6,500 light-years away from the Earth, and is 5 light-years across. This false-color image presents images from Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) at 3.6 (blue), 8.0 (green), 24 (red) microns. Image: NASA, JPL-Caltech, R.

Gehrz (University of Minnesota) VIDEO Crab Nebula Encyclopedia > Science and Technology > Astronomy and Space Exploration > Astronomy: General Crab Nebula Crab Nebula, diffuse gaseous nebula in the constellation Taurus; cataloged as NGC 1952 and M1, the first object recorded in Charles Messier's catalog of nonstellar objects (see Messier catalog ). It is the remnant of a supernova that was observed in 1054 by Chinese and Arab astronomers to be as bright as Venus; markings in northern New Mexico depict a star near a crescent moon that might be a record of this supernova. Only three other supernovas have been observed in our galaxy since then. The explosion of the Crab Nebula produced a large expanding shell of delicate filaments. The filaments contain ionized gas in which unusually energetic electrons twist through magnetic fields at speeds close to that of light, emitting synchrotron radiation. Although this radiation is what makes supernova remnants visible in radio wavelengths, in this nebula it is so strong that observers can see the filaments through moderate-sized optical telescopes under good conditions. The nebula is also a strong emitter of X rays.

At its center is a pulsar , PSR 0531+21, that spins 30 times per second. The youngest pulsar observed, it gives off radiation at radio, optical, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray wavelengths, as well as electrons that power the synchrotron radiation in the surrounding nebula. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: Astronomy: General Crab Nebula | astronomy | Britannica.com Crab Nebula Alternative Titles: M1, NGC 1952 Related Topics Orion Nebula Crab Nebula, (catalog numbers NGC 1952 and M1), probably the most intensely studied bright nebula , in the constellation Taurus , about 6,500 light-years from Earth . Roughly 10 light-years in diameter, it is assumed to be the remnant of a supernova (violently exploding star) observed by Chinese and other astronomers first on July 4, 1054. The supernova was visible in daylight for 23 days and at night for almost 2 years.

There are no records of its observation at the time by Europeans. The Crab Nebula (M1, NGC 1952) in the constellation Taurus is a gaseous remnant of the galactic … Courtesy of Palomar Observatory/California Institute of Technology The discovery of the object as a nebula is attributed to the English physician and amateur astronomer John Bevis in about 1731. In 1758 it was the first object listed (M1) in Charles Messier ’s catalog of nebulous objects. It acquired its name, suggested by its form, in the mid-19th century. In 1921 it was discovered to be still expanding; the present rate is about 1,100 km (700 miles) per second. The Crab is one of the few astronomical objects from which radiation has been detected over the entire measurable spectrum, from radio waves through infrared and visible wavelengths to ultraviolet , X-rays , and gamma rays . In the late 1960s the Crab pulsar (NP 0532), thought to be the collapsed remnant of the supernova, was discovered near the centre of the nebula.

The pulsar, which flashes in radio, visible, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths at 30 times per second, provides the energy that allows the nebula to glow. Crab pulsar (NP 0532), as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo AURA/STScI/NASA/JPL (NASA photo # STScI-PRC96-22a) Learn More in these related articles: The Crab Nebula (M1): Facts, Discovery & Images The Crab Nebula (M1): Facts, Discovery & Images By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | August 8, 2012 11:40am ET MORE When a star dies in a violent, fiery death, it spews its innards out across the sky, creating an expanding wave of gas and dust known as a supernova nebula. Arguably, the most famous of these supernova remnants is M1, also called the Crab Nebula, a blob-like patch visible in low-powered binoculars. Let's take a look at this viewing treasure.

The Hubble Space Telescope has caught the most detailed view of the Crab Nebula in one of the largest images ever assembed by the space-based observatory. Credit: NASA/ESA and Jeff Hester (Arizona State University). Early observations Chinese astronomers watching the sky on July 4, 1054, noted the appearance of a new or "guest" star just above the southern horn of Taurus. But knowledge of star-fields was not necessary to spot this surprising visitor — according to records, the bright source was visible during the daytime for 23 days, shining six times as brightly as Venus. Those well-versed with the night sky would have been able to see it for 653 days — almost two years — with the naked eye. Other observations of the explosion were recorded by Japanese, Arabic, and Native American stargazers. In 1731, British astronomer John Bevis observed a cloudy blob in the sky and added it to his star atlas. But it wasn't until French astronomer Charles Messier independently observed it 27 years later that things began to pick up for this stellar remnant.

Messier was a voracious comet hunter, but he found that the quality of telescopes at the time made it easy to confuse the fuzzy, blazing balls of ice with the hazy nebulae that dot the night sky. While searching for a comet that Edmond Halley had predicted would return in 1758, Messier discovered a hazy patch in the sky, which he would later add to his catalog as Messier 1, or M1. Studying the nebula over time revealed that, unlike a comet, it didn't move across the night sky, and thus was a completely different feature. After a few other misidentifications, Messier was determined to put together a catalog of these objects in order to prevent other astronomers from making the same mistake. M1 became his first entry. Although he credited himself with its discovery in his first publication of the Messier catalog, he acknowledged Bevis' original finding in subsequent versions after receiving a letter from the astronomer. Messier went on to expand his list to include 110 objects, most of them supernova remnants.

[ 50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos ] Around 1844, British astronomer William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, sketched the nebula. The resemblance of the image to a crustacean led to M1's other name, the Crab Nebula. In the early 20th century, astronomers were able to take more detailed measurements of M1 and determined that it is expanding. Working backwards, they determined its origination date, and matched the explosion up with observations from Chinese and Native American records. Fermi's LAT discovered a gamma-ray 'superflare' from the Crab Nebula on April 12, 2011. These images show the number of gamma rays with energies greater than 100 million electron volts from a region of the sky centered on the Crab Nebula. Both views eliminate emission form the Crab pulsar by showing the sky in between its pulses. In both images, the bright source below is the Geminga pulsar. At left, the region 20 days before the flare; at right, April 14. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT/R.

Buehler The guts of the nebula A supernova remnant forms when the pressure inside of a star is stronger than the gravity that holds it together, and the star explodes. As the gas rushes outward, it fills the space around it. The material ejected from the Crab Nebula is moving at more than 3 million mph (4.8 million kph). [ Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions ] The nebula stretches 10 light-years across, though it continues to expand. It lies approximately 6,300 light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Taurus. M1 can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky, but only barely. A pair of binoculars will turn up a dim patch, while more of the identifying features of the nebula become visible with a low-magnification telescope. A higher-grade, 16-inch telescope will begin to refine more of the nebula. A bright source within In the summer of 1967, U.S. Air Force officer Charles Schisler was on radar duty at Clear Air Force Base in Alaska when he noticed a fluctuating radio source.

The source appeared over the course of several days, and Schisler noticed that its position coincided with the Crab Nebula. However, the findings weren't published by the Air Force at the time, and the discovery went unrealized until 2007. A year later, astronomers in Puerto Rico discovered the same pulsing radio source. Determined to be a pulsar , the object is a rapidly-rotating, town-sized star that flashes about 30 times a second. Known as NP0532, or the Crab Pulsar, the neutron star is 100,000 times more energetic than the sun. Though only a few tens of miles across, it shines about as brightly as our nearest sun. — Nola Taylor Redd The Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant By John P. Millis, Ph.D Updated February 14, 2016. There's a ghostly remnant of star death out there in the night-time sky called the Crab Nebula. It's not visible to the naked eye, but through a telescope, it looks positively ghostly. That's because it's all that remains of a massive star that died in a supernova explosion thousands of years ago.

Perhaps the most famous image (seen here) of this cloud of hot gas and dust has been taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows amazing detail of the expanding cloud. If YOU want to take a look, you'll need a telescope and a place away from bright lights to spot it. The best times to look at night are from November through March each year. The Crab Nebula lies about 6,500 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Taurus. The cloud we see has been expanding ever since the original explosion, and now it covers an area of space about 10 light-years across. People often ask if the Sun will explode like this. Thankfully, the answer is "no". continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge It's not massive enough to create such a sight. It will end its days as a planetary nebula. What Made the Crab What It Is Today? The Crab belongs to a class of objects called supernova remnants (SNR). They are created when a star many times the mass of the Sun collapses in on itself and then rebounds out in a catastrophic explosion. This is called a supernova. Why does the star do this?

Massive stars eventually run out of fuel in their cores at the same time they are losing their outer layers to space. At some point, the outward pressure of the core can't hold back the massive weight of the outer layers, They collapse in on the core. Everything blasts back out in a violent burst of energy, sending huge amounts of stellar material out to space. This forms the “remnant” that we see today. The leftover core of the star keeps contracting under its own gravity. Eventually, it forms a new type of object called a neutron star. The Crab Pulsar The neutron star at the heart of the Crab is very small, probably just a few miles across. But it is extremely dense. If you had a can of soup filled with neutron star material , it would have about the same mass as Earth's Moon. It's roughly in the center of the nebula and spins very fast -- about 30 times a second. Rotating neutron stars like this are called pulsars (derived from the words PULSating stARS). The pulsar inside the Crab is one of the most powerful ever observed.

It injects so much energy into the nebula that we can detect light streaming away from the cloud in virtually every wavelength, from low-energy radio photons to the highest energy gamma-rays . The Pulsar Wind Nebula The Crab Nebula is also referred to as a pulsar wind nebula, or PWN. A PWN is a nebula that is created by the material that is ejected by a pulsar interacting with random interstellar gas and the pulsar’s own magnetic field. PWNs are often difficult to distinguish from SNRs, since they often look very similar. In some cases, objects will appear with a PWN but no SNR. The Crab Nebula contains a PWN inside the SNR, and if you look closely it appears as the sort of cloudy area in the middle of the HST image. The Crab Through History If you had lived in the year 1054, the Crab would have been so bright you could see it in the daytime. It was easily the brightest object in the sky, besides the Sun and Moon, for several months. Then, as all supernova explosions do, it began to fade.

Chinese astronomers noted its presence in the sky as a "guest star", and it's thought that the Anasazi peopel who lived in the U.S. desert southwest also noted its presence. The Crab Nebula got its name in 1840 when William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse, using a 36-inch telescope, created a drawing of a nebula he spotted that he thought looked like a crab. With the 36-inch telescope he was not able to fully resolve the colored web of hot gas around the pulsar. But, he tried again a few years later with a bigger telescope and then he could see greater detail. He noted that his earlier drawings were not representative of the true structure of the nebula, but the name Crab Nebula was already popular. Chandra :: Photo Album :: Crab Nebula :: November 23, 2009 Photo Album The explosion that produced the Crab Nebula was observed on Earth in 1054 A.D. The aftermath of the star's death has produced a spectacular structure that scientists are trying to understand. Data from different telescopes are necessary to probe the true nature of this complex object.

A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of 1054 A.D. Now, almost a thousand years later, a super dense object -- called a neutron star -- left behind by the explosion is seen spewing out a blizzard of high-energy particles into the expanding debris field known as the Crab Nebula. X-ray data from Chandra provide significant clues to the workings of this mighty cosmic "generator," which is producing energy at the rate of 100,000 suns. This composite image uses data from three of NASA's Great Observatories . The Chandra X-ray image is shown in blue, the Hubble Space Telescope optical image is in red and yellow, and the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared image is in purple. The X-ray image is smaller than the others because extremely energetic electrons emitting X-rays radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. Along with many other telescopes, Chandra has repeatedly observed the Crab Nebula over the course of the mission's lifetime. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the sky, truly making it a cosmic icon.

Fast Facts for Crab Nebula: Credit Posted by benoy on Wednesday, 12.9.09 @ 03:13am It is truly breath-taking. It looks awesome. Posted by Jared Trent on Thursday, 12.3.09 @ 10:10am The Crab Nebula has been observed for almost a century now. I wonder, if there are hundreds of observations over the years that could be put into a short video, I would love to see how much it has changed in the last 100 years since it is not even a 1000 years old. Given its close proximity young age and size there should be far more research being done on it. What does spectral analysis show of its elemental structure? What elements are where? How fast is it expanding? 12x8 light years in size in less than 1000 years and what does that say about? How fast is its rate of expansion slowing? Posted by Gerry on Saturday, 11.28.09 @ 09:59am Knowledge will set us free.

Being able to understand how the energy is produced is a stepping stone on how to make our world a better place without using carbon as fuel. If we can use the energy, then we are truly free to explore the limits of time and space. Posted by C. Humble on Friday, 11.27.09 @ 10:06am Truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Posted by Ivy Burke on Thursday, 11.26.09 @ 06:51am This is a very beautiful picture of the Crab. The pulsar in its center is very compact, rotating at nearly 30 revolutions per second. A very interesting stellar object to read about and study. Posted by Marvin L. S. on Tuesday, 11.24.09 @ 16:21pm Photo appears to reveal a pinpoint surrounded by a circle disk, with jets emerging from either poles. Isn't this more representative of a black hole than a neutron star?

On the other hand, if a black hole, one would expect to see a disk feeding the lurking monster, Can it be that the star is still shrinking, even after a thousand years on its way to becoming a black hole? Posted by Sheldon Feuerstein on Tuesday, 11.24.09 @ 15:26pm I wonder how long the Nebular can continue to generate energy at that level? Posted by Mark Ballington on Tuesday, 11.24.09 @ 10:31am Wow. Not a word most would use, but this is really wonderful to see and learn about. It never ceases to amaze me how much variety is in the stars and planets. Before, I would look and say stars at night wonderful, now, it is Wow.

Posted by julie soufan on Tuesday, 11.24.09 @ 04:31am Breathtaking Posted by denise on Tuesday, 11.24.09 @ 00:08am If the Crab Nebula is about 6000 light years from Earth and his explosion was observed on Earth a thousand years before now, those means that it happened 7000 years ago? And other question. If we suppose that explosion produced some type of gravitational effect. What effect arrived first to Earth? the light effector or gravitational? Posted by Manuel Rodriguez M on Monday, 11.23.09 @ 23:11pm Leave Your Comment

Question: The Crab Nebula is in which constellation?
Answer: Taurus